LinkedIn Monetization: Learn How to Make Money via Your Personal Brand or Business

by | Apr 20, 2015 | Marketing, Monetization

LinkedIn monetization is less about content monetization and more about smart networking.

Other forms of content monetization focus on affiliate marketing, advertising, information products, and so on. While LinkedIn does have a publishing platform, it’s more about professional networking. And though it’s more difficult to make money with affiliate links – and impossible with advertising – there are ways to monetize LinkedIn.

Understanding LinkedIn Channels

As you probably know, LinkedIn is a professional network. And there are several features that allow you to connect with others, promote yourself, promote products, publish content, and so forth.

Each “publication outlet” offers different possibilities in terms of monetization.

Here are the major features to be aware of:

LinkedIn Profiles – Profiles are the place to showcase yourself, your company, your products, and your services. You can link to websites and promote whatever you wish.

Long-Form Publishing – You can publish long-form blog posts on LinkedIn, just like you can on a blog. These posts are a great way to promote whatever you wish. And they can be a great tool to build your thought leadership.

Groups – LinkedIn Groups are forums. People can create, moderate, join, and participate in groups as they wish. Some are open to the public, others are private, but all are excellent opportunities to connect with others.

Advertising – LinkedIn allows targeted advertising to anyone within the network. You can target your ads based on a number of factors, including job title, company title, industry, and so on.

Using LinkedIn Channels for Monetization

There are several standard types of ways to monetize content online:

  • Placing ads in your content that earn you money
  • Using affiliate links to earn commissions
  • Selling your own products and services

There are plenty of other derivations of these models, but these three are the most common.

Generally speaking, “monetizing content” simply means using that content as a sales vehicle. You may be selling someone else’s products or services or your own. But to make money, you need to sell something.

Here’s how to use LinkedIn’s publication channels to make money:

Promote yourself, your business, your own products, or your own services. This is by far the most common way to monetize LinkedIn. After all, that’s what the site is designed for – professional networking. So this should become the core of your LinkedIn monetization strategy.

Everything you promote and publish on the site should help build your brand and your authority. And it should all help promote your business, your products, and your services.

Promote affiliate products through your profile page, through groups, and in long-form posts. Affiliate links can be placed in most places throughout the site. Some groups, however, may prohibit affiliate links – or any links at all. But you are allowed to place links in long-form posts, in your profile, and in groups that allow links.

Bear in mind, however, that many people may find affiliate links distasteful if used improperly…or too often. Another drawback to using affiliate links is the fact that your posts won’t get that much traffic.

A website can generate thousands of visitors per month, week, or day. But it is highly unlikely your affiliate links will see that much traffic on this network.

Use LinkedIn advertising to grow your brand or your business. You can’t really make money by placing ads on LinkedIn, like you can with a website. But you can use the network’s built-in ad service to focus on highly targeted audiences.

The best way to use LinkedIn advertising – and the network in general – is as part of a larger marketing and monetization plan. Develop a strategy that focuses on a standalone brand with a standalone website, then use LinkedIn as a tool to build that brand and website.

If, for instance, you are creating a website that caters to a crowd of targeted professionals, then LinkedIn is the perfect tool to help you build a following.

Create email lists from your contacts and market to those prospects. It’s possible to download your email list from LinkedIn, import those contacts into an email marketing program, and market directly to those prospects. Be careful with this technique, however, because misuse of this tactic can irritate people and cost you some connections.

But when used properly, you can generate an email list directly from your LinkedIn contacts. And you can then market to them via email, which offers more direct monetization potential in terms of advertising, affiliate marketing, product sales, and so on.

Summary

LinkedIn is best used as a tool to support your business, which should have its own core profit structure. Monetizing content on LinkedIn publication channels – groups, long-form publishing, profiles, etc. – just doesn’t earn as much traffic as a website might.

However, when you use LinkedIn as a professional networking platform – which is what it was designed for – then you can build an audience, a reputation, an email list, and enhance your existing monetization efforts. 

App Funnel Optimization Guide: How to Boost Your Downloads

by | Apr 2, 2015 | Analytics

Analytics for software companies are similar to those used by e-commerce sites and other merchants, but they aren’t identical. The vast majority of developers and software companies don’t monetize their apps via paid purchases. Instead, they use advertising or in-app purchases to monetize their software.

In this case, in-app purchases or advertising conversions are the ultimate goal of a conversion funnel. This can be a bit more complicated and dicey: you want users to stay engaged with your program as much as possible, but you also want them to convert on advertisements.

Understanding the Conversion Funnel

The conversion funnel is the model that online marketers use to describe the sales or purchase funnel. That is, this model describes the customer’s typical journey towards making a purchase.

Typically, the funnel is modeled as a four- or five-stage process. Customers – or, in this case, app users – transition from not knowing anything about your product to downloading the product, engaging with the product, and converting on offers.

  • Awareness – This is the initial stage, where users first find out about your app.
  • Interest – The user becomes interested in the target app.
  • Desire – The user wants to download the app.
  • Action – The user downloads (and engages with) the app.

Now, this model is the typical purchase funnel used in e-commerce and retail situations – though, in this case, it is slightly adapted for the developer. It describes the users’ overall journey as they become prospects, then leads, and then make purchases.

But how well does this model work for software companies?

We won’t delve any further into marketing theory, but, as we can see, it presents a small problem. This model presupposes a single purchase at the end of the funnel, whereas a developer or software company needs to do its best to understand the user’s needs and the user’s app experience.

The closest that we can come to understanding the user experience is by using analytics to track user engagement. What this means is that we need to utilize analytics that begin where the conversion funnel ends.

But before we can track user engagement, we need to actually bring them to the Action stage.

Tracking Points: Inside, Outside, and Everything In Between

Here are analytics that software companies should be using in order to monitor their conversion funnel from end to end:

Awareness – The outermost portion of the funnel typically consists of display advertising. One of the most telling metrics for this portion of the funnel is click-through rates. Advanced analytics tools may be able to provide you with hover rates or view rates.

Interest – Social media often enters the scene at this stage, so paid social media advertising and other social media metrics should be tracked at this point in the conversion funnel.

Desire – During this stage, customers develop an intent to purchase. Several other types of advertising can play a role in pushing customers forward towards the Action stage, including email marketing and other paid advertising.

Action – The biggest influencers for the final decision to make a download are typically the final point of contact, including contact points such as organic search, website visits, other paid advertising, app store listings, software directory listings, and so forth.

Since the customer journey does not end with the app download, software companies have to monitor other metrics that begin at that stage. These may include:

The Installation Funnel – The installation funnel, used for pay-per-install software monetization programs, can track everything from the initial download to the abandonment rate. This funnel monitors the effectiveness of the installer ads and ends after the download has completed.

In-App Engagement – Any proprietary analytics or other analytics that are incorporated into the app itself should be included in any conversion funnel metrics. Typical time metrics, click volumes, and so forth should all be measured.

In-App Ads and Purchases – Ad conversions or in-app purchase analytics, when used in combination with engagement metrics, can give useful analytics for software companies. Together, these are among the most vital statistics for measuring the effectiveness of a monetization strategy.

Uninstalls – Finally, tracking uninstalls is another ideal way to know what works and what doesn’t. The combination of all in-app analytics, along with user feedback, can give a holistic picture of how to fix the very final stage of the conversion funnel.

In a sense, the app itself is like the website or the shopping cart for an e-commerce site. Users need to stay engaged until they convert.

 

While some marketers debate the efficacy of the conversion funnel, it does have its uses. It provides a simple framework that allows us to set marketing goals, track them, and refine our strategies. For developers and software companies, analytics that track user engagement provide a means for improving app design as well as monetization strategies. 

5 Marketing Benefits You Should be Bundling with Software Now

by | Mar 19, 2015 | Marketing, Software

Software bundles are product suites that contain multiple applications. They are frequently used to combine multiple small apps, tools, extensions, or plugins into a single package. For instance, you could purchase a bundle of WordPress plugins or Photoshop extensions.

Since selling an individual plugin is often not possible, developers will often package multiple tools together in order to make a viable sale. While you can package your own apps and plugins together, it’s often more feasible to work with others when creating your software bundle.

Doing so carries a number of benefits that can give you edge in marketing and monetization.

How?

Here are 5 of the top reasons.

1. New Partners

No developer is an island, and bundles are proof of that. When you work together with other developers, you build connections with other companies and individuals who can be your partners in business.

In marketing there is an awful lot of emphasis on the competition, but sometimes not enough on non-competitors. Forming relationships and pooling resources is sometimes the best way to climb the ladder and become successful.

More successful companies are excellent resources that can help you further your career, while smaller fish help reinforce your own position as an authority in your industry. Besides, who knows how they could help you down the line?

2. Bigger Audience

Another benefit to partnering up and bundling is growing your audience. The more partners who are involved, the more audiences you’ll have access to. Since each partner will undoubtedly let their followers know about the software bundle, you’ll gain exposure to that audience as well.

Promotion is one of the primary reasons you should consider bundling your software. While many developers shun the idea if the bottom line won’t see a big enough impact, it’s often best to look at it as a marketing investment. It’s very unlikely that bundling will hurt your business in any way.

In fact, the opposite is usually true. If, for example, two developers pool their audiences, revenue-share programs can often earn more money for each developer, even if they charge the same price for their bundle as for the individual app. Why?

As mentioned below, a bundle enhances the value of a product. If you include two apps for the price of one and double the audience pool, you are likely to see more than double the number of purchases, due to this enhanced value.

The end result?

3. More Money

If you do your math right, the aggregated demand of your audiences combined with the enhanced value of the bundle will bring in a larger net income. In other words, if you create or join a bundle, you’ll be able to see a return on investment.

On its own, a plugin can be difficult to monetize, unless it has an extensive range of features and provides serious value to the customer.

Given the increased value and demand for a bundle, however, that plugin can potentially earn more money, in addition to the other marketing benefits and networking benefits mentioned here.

4. Portfolio Experience

For new and intermediate developers, extensions and plugins are ideal ways to get your feet wet. And a portfolio piece looks that much better when it has been included in a bundle along with product from other well-established companies. This way, you can point to the project and its reception: the number of downloads, the ratings, the revenue, and so forth.

It can be daunting and difficult to jump headfirst – or even feet first – into software development. And if you don’t yet have the technical knowledge, it makes sense to take baby steps towards that goal. But just because you start small doesn’t mean you have to go unnoticed.

5. Enhanced Value

A sole plugin has much less value than a suite of products. This enhanced value increases the likelihood that you’ll gain all of the above benefits, such as increased recognition and income. Products that are more valuable in a customer’s eyes will also reflect better on your company. 

It is for this reason that subscription models like Netflix are so successful. Despite the service’s low monthly cost, it has been able to outstrip the traditional a la carte model used by other movie rental outlets.

A Word of Advice

When you bundle your products, ensure that you are adding value to the complete package. Don’t include software that you yourself wouldn’t use or recommend. If, for instance, there is persistent or annoying software, this could have a negative impact on your business instead of a positive one.

Finally, it should be noted that there is another use of the term bundling. The other usage of “bundling” is almost synonymous with pay-per-install, where you include third-party apps with your main software program and earn income when users install those apps. This is also a common monetization strategy, implemented successfully by advertising industry leaders like CodeFuel.

 

Happy bundling!

11 Simple Software Advertising Tips to Improve Monetization and Distribution

by | Mar 5, 2015 | Advertising

Software advertising is a useful tool for developers who want to both promote and monetize their software. Software marketing isn’t rocket science, but it does take a bit of planning, a bit of finesse, and a bit of common sense.

Here are 11 software advertising tips that can help you improve your bottom line and extend your reach.

1. Map Your Niche, Then Your Conversion Funnel

Every niche is unique, and has its own proclivities towards certain online media channels, social media networks, websites, and so forth. A decent map of your niche will give you the ability to construct a conversion funnel that isn’t just based on guesswork – it will be based on solid data.

2. Trust the Numbers, Not Your Team

Everyone on the team has an opinion and a bias. What you or anyone else on your team thinks may work for an ad campaign isn’t necessarily the best solution, yet political struggles can often divide a company. Often, when these opinions are stacked against the numbers, it appears that no one is right.

Whether you’re making decisions about advertising, marketing, or user interface design, use analytics and user testing to help find out the real answer. This way you can move on to more important things.

3. Test Something New Every Few Months

The curve is always changing, so keeping up with the curve requires constant evolution on your part. Always research the latest advertising trends, <a “=”” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>monetization platforms, and marketing news.

Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and test them out. Even if a trend turns out to be a fad, a side test on a side product never hurt anyone. Everything you learn can help you make smarter decisions down the road.

4. Personalize Based on User Data

Whether you’re developing an app, an extension, or a desktop program, you have the potential to gather user data. This data keeps you up-to-speed on what users want, which allows you to personalize, among other things, two important aspects of your monetization strategy: your app and your advertising.

The more personal you make it, the more value you can deliver, and the more conversions you’ll make.

5. Get Familiar with the Advertising World

Learn what’s up and who’s who. Stay up to date with the latest news so you don’t get left behind when big changes take place. Keep up with monetization news and have relevant headlines delivered to your inbox every day.

6. Display Is on the Rise, So Use It

Display advertising is increasing year by year, and is set to overtake search ads in 2024. Highly specialized software advertising solutions such as DisplayFuel offer the best choice for developers: they bring in high quality, targeted users who convert and stick around.

7. Bundle

Bundling your software offers several promotional benefits:

  • You can earn revenue from smaller code packages, such as extensions and plugins
  • You gain exposure to your partners’ audience pools
  • You can meet new people in your industry and form new alliances
  • Newer developers can gain experience and a foothold in their target niche

8. Promote with Software Advertising Platforms

Software advertising platforms, monetization platforms, and promotion platforms such as those offered by CodeFuel, allow you to manage your marketing efforts from a single place. This reduces your marketing expenditure, allows you to calculate your marketing ROI, and gives you the knowledge you need to optimize effectively.

9. Automate as Much as Reasonable

Automation is useful for the repetitive tasks that take up too much of your time, as well as the tasks that are just impossible for you to handle. Keeping up with the ever-changing marketing industry, for instance, is becoming more and more difficult as the advertising world continues to fragment and evolve.

Here are examples of tasks to automate:

  • Cross-posting the same content on your social media and blogs
  • Gathering data from the web or news outlets that is relevant to your industry
  • Real-time bidding
  • Campaign optimization

Avoid automating human interactions and over-automating customer service, which can appear artificial.

10. Monitor the Competition

If you’re a large business, then you may want to consider investing in competitive intelligence tools. But even if you’re a freelance developer or a small company, it pays to track your competition day in and day out.

Use automated data collection tools to track their movement online, so you can adapt your marketing and monetization strategy when they evolve theirs.

11. Try Out New Tech

Not only should you try out new advertising strategies and tools, you should also try out new technology. Every learning experience is an investment, which can always pay off in dividends.

Study new devices, experiment with the analytics and data they offer advertisers, and test your software advertising strategies in these new mediums.

 

Whether you’re just starting out in the software advertising world or whether you have years of experience, these simple tips will help keep you on top of your game so the competition doesn’t get ahead. 

PPL, PPS, PPC, and PPI: Affiliate Compensation Models and Their Benefits

by | Feb 25, 2015 | Advertising

The acronyms PPL, PPS, PPC, and PPI, affiliate marketing, and advertising compensation method, are probably familiar to most online marketers. Each compensation method pays differently and has a different earning potential. Which one is right for you?

Each has its benefits, its drawbacks, and its applications. Generally speaking, certain types of compensation pay more than others, but it should be noted that these rates can vary greatly, especially when it comes to highly competitive industries. 

Pay-Per-Lead (PPL)

Most companies place a high value on leads and offer pay-per-lead (PPL) – often considered a type of pay-per-action (PPA) – compensation methods. As with most affiliate networks and compensation methods, the rate can vary greatly from advertiser to advertiser and from industry to industry. Lead-generation programs offered through affiliate networks can pay anywhere from $2 to $20 or more.

Subscription-based services, such as internet service providers and cell phone networks, as well as other service-based vendors, tend to use this model.

Pay-Per-Sale (PPS)

Pay-per-sale (PPS) requires payment in the form of a commission each time a product is sold. This commission is almost always a percentage of the total cost of the product. As with the other compensation models, the exact rate can vary greatly. But, in general, this rate has the potential to be as high, if not higher, than the others.

Some sales, such as a $2.99 ebook with a 6% commission, doesn’t have a lot of monetization potential, given the low commission rate as well as the low conversion rate for purchases. A camera, however, that generates the same commission on a $1,500 sale would have the potential to be much more lucrative.

This compensation model is very common in affiliate marketing and can earn marketers a great deal of income, but it is also highly competitive and quite time-consuming.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the most ubiquitous, common terms in the online advertising world. With this compensation method, marketers earn money each time a person clicks on an advertisement. Anyone who wishes to monetize an app or a website, for instance, can insert PPC ads as a way to generate an online income stream.

In general, PPC ads don’t earn very much revenue – often less than a few cents. Highly competitive niche markets, however, can pay much more. Logically speaking, then, the more traffic you have and the more you engage them, the more money you will earn.

Pay-Per-Impression (PPI)

Pay-per-impression (PPI) ads are another common compensation model for display ads and text ads. They generate revenue based on the number of times people view the ads. From the advertiser’s perspective, this compensation method is typically called cost-per-mille (CPM), which means cost-per-thousand impressions.

As with PPC, the pay tends to be low relative for this compensation model, and often requires large amounts of traffic in order to gain a significant income.

Which Compensation Model is Best for Marketers?

After reading the above descriptions, it may seem that PPL and PPS are the better way to go. After all, they earn you much more money, so why wouldn’t you?

It’s true, but there are other factors that you should take into consideration.

PPL and PPS take more time to implement. Adding ads to your website, software program, or browser extension is usually a matter of inserting the proper code. And if you have enough traffic to your site or users engaged with your app, you’ll be able to generate decent revenue.

On the other hand, it can be harder to convince someone to spend money on a product or service. You have to put time and effort into contextualizing the offer, creating good content to pitch the sale, and earning people’s trust. This type of marketing can often be a part-time or even full-time job.

Affiliate marketing is highly competitive. Generally, when people use the term “affiliate marketing,” they are referring to PPL, PPA, and PPS compensation methods. Because this type of marketing can be so lucrative, it is also highly competitive. The niches have all become saturated with talented, tech-savvy marketers who make it very difficult to squeeze in. And, as time goes on, these fields will only become more competitive.

Certain types of content are more suited to certain types of marketing. PPC and PPI ads are ideal for certain types of content, but not as ideal for others. They can be excellent for monetizing software, apps, or browser extensions, for instance. Since PPS and PPL marketing often relies heavily on context and content, it can be more of a creative and logistical challenge to use these types of marketing to monetize anything code-based.

 

While there is no one right way to monetize anything, there are two general things to consider: what type of content you’re trying to monetize and how much time you have to put into your online marketing efforts. For those who want to put less time into marketing and more time into content creation, PPC and PPI ads are probably the way to go. But for those who want to focus on the marketing side of things, context-driven sales, and so forth, PPL and PPS compensation methods will probably work well.